It is heretofore known to mount fuseblocks to channel members or rails, which are fastened by screws or the like to an underlying support such as a panel. Typically, the rails comprise a pair of upstanding edges, and the conventional method of mounting the fuseblock to the rails is to use a fuseblock having at its base front and back lips. The fuseblocks are mounted to the rails by aligning and engaging one of the fuseblock lips with one of the rail edges and then snapping the other edge into engagement.
It has also been known to use instead a specially constructed intermediary adapter to achieve the mounting of the fuseblock, which also may be specially constructed to engage with the adapter. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,339, for example, an adapter is provided having on its upper portion upstanding resilient fingers that terminate in latching surfaces, and a fuseblock is provided having a central opening in the form of an elongated slot. The fuseblock and adapter are secured together by aligning the elongated slot of the fuseblock with the fingers of the adapter and by then applying a pressure so that the resilient latching fingers enter the opening and then latch on to the top rim of the central opening. Leaves are also provided on the top of the adapter which act as cantilevered spring members to further secure the fuseholder to the latching fingers. It is also known to add to the top of the adapter of U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,339 a plurality of bosses and to the bottom of the fuseholder a plurality of bores adapted to receivingly engage the bosses to provide further securement between the two components.
The above described mounting method, however, fails to provide a secure and stabile mounting because of its reliance on resilient fingers which necessarily react in response to force in the direction axial to the latching fingers. This response provides "play" between the adapter and fuseblock and thus, an unstable mounting. Moreover, upon application of sufficient force, the two components can be separated.
Another problem with heretofore known fuseblocks is their lack of versatility in view of the fact that many different sized rail members may be encountered in connection with mounting fuseblocks. In order to attempt to overcome this problem, conventional fuseblocks and adapters have been constructed so as to be engagable with two different sized rails. The fuseblocks or the adapters have a constructed base that enables them to be engageable with two different-sized rails, as shown in FIGS. 4-7 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,339. Three arms extend generally downward from the base and are separately engageable with two different sized rails. Although this specially constructed base has increased versatility, there are more than two sizes of rails that can be used in connection with the mounting of fuseblocks.